A University Founded to “Transform Society”
On October 10, 1895, in an unassuming building on Houghton Street in London, more than 200 students crowded into a few classrooms to attend the first lecture at the London School of Economics (LSE). They likely could not have imagined that this evening school-style institution, founded by a few “utopian” social reformers, would grow 130 years later to become the undisputed pinnacle of the global social sciences.
The very birth of the LSE was imbued with a strong sense of idealism. Its four founders—Beatrice and Sidney Webb, Graham Wallas, and playwright George Bernard Shaw—were all members of the Fabian Society, an intellectual elite group that advocated for the elimination of social injustice through gradual social reform rather than revolution. Their original vision for founding LSE was simple yet grand: “for the betterment of society”. Shaw’s famous quote, “Better keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you must see the world,” remains etched in the school’s soul to this day. How a London School of Economics Diploma Gave Me Confidence
This “engagement with reality” has defined LSE’s uniqueness from the very beginning. Unlike Oxford and Cambridge, which were immersed in the ivory tower of classical scholarship, LSE turned its gaze directly toward the poverty, inequality, and social divisions brought about by the Industrial Revolution. In 1900, LSE officially joined the University of London; in 1920, King George V laid the cornerstone for the school’s new building in central London. From that moment on, LSE has remained at the very heart of the city.
Alumni Roster: A Condensed History of the Modern World
If one were to compile a book featuring LSE alumni, it would be almost a condensed history of the 20th-century world.
LSE alumni and faculty have produced 20 Nobel laureates—including 1925 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate and co-founder of the school, George Bernard Shaw; 1950 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate and philosopher Bertrand Russell; and 2024 Nobel Prize in Economics laureate and LSE professor Philippe Aghion.
In the political arena, more than 40 current or former heads of state and government have studied or taught at LSE. This list includes: European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen; International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva; former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau; B B. R. Ambedkar, the “Father of the Indian Constitution”; and China’s Yang Jiechi.
The business world is equally rich in LSE alumni. Financial titan George Soros and Ruth Porat, Chief Investment Officer at Alphabet (Google’s parent company), both graduated from here. Even Mick Jagger, lead singer of the Rolling Stones, was once an LSE student—though he dropped out after just one year.
“The Cradle of Prime Ministers,” “The Hall of Financial Elites,” “The Heart of Global Think Tanks”—these titles are by no means undeserved.
In the Heart of London, Engaging with the World
The LSE campus has no lawns, no clock towers, and no grand campus walls. Its “campus” is the heart of London—the school is located on Houghton Street, adjacent to the Houses of Parliament, the Royal Courts of Justice, and the City of London.
LSE currently has approximately 9,600 full-time students from more than 140 countries. International students account for as much as about 70% of the student body—a proportion that ranks among the highest in the UK and worldwide. Walking through the halls of LSE, you’ll hear English spoken in a variety of accents, with discussions covering real-world global issues ranging from rural development in India and the Latin American debt crisis to urbanization in China. The classrooms here are essentially mini-United Nations.
LSE’s library—the British Library of Political and Economic Studies—is the world’s largest library of the social sciences, with a collection of over 4.7 million volumes. Here, you can read at the very same reading room desk where Marx once wrote *Capital*—that sense of history intertwining with the present is an experience unique to LSE.
